A Cat and Coffee

Ruby had been in the library for a few hours, having such a lovely time catching up with her old pal Kiki and learning more about her new dragon friends. The conversations ran so smoothly within the group and it made Kiki very pleased that her fairy friend approved of her decision to make the dragons guardians of the library. As the afternoon progressed, Kiki offered to help Ruby find a closer camping place within the village so that she could stay with them for a few days. Kiki knew the mushroom fairy was desperate to learn more from the dragons and so it seemed an ideal opportunity for Ruby to stick around for a while.

The two fairies slowly made their way out into the village and walked down one of the streets lined with empty houses towards a patch they both knew would potentially be the perfect spot for Ruby to set up camp. Out of the corner of her eye, Kiki saw an unusual shadow outside one of the buildings. Taking a closer look, she realised that lying on the doorstep of the light brick building was a new visitor. Kiki nudged her friend and pointed in the direction of the visitor which neither of them had met before. A pale grey fluffy cat slept soundly in the shade  of the house to escape the afternoon sun. The cat had darker grey stripes with a white belly and paws, making it look like they had been dipped in cream. Its pointed ears twitched every now and then and they had white fur inside that looked like cotton balls. The two fairies drew closer, exclaiming over how beautiful and cute the cat was. Its ears twitched again and its eyes slowly opened to reveal beautiful blue eyes which glistened like water.

“Hello!” chirped Kiki enthusiastically. The grey cat stared at the fairies with an expressionless look and didn’t answer. Concerned by this, Ruby asked the cat if it was okay but the response was not what she expected. “I am ever so tired and people chattering near me whilst I am trying to sleep does not help.” the cat grumpily responded. Kiki was taken aback but also felt very guilty for waking the poor cat up. Ruby, on the other hand, took only a second to recompose herself before asking if the cat had ever tried coffee to help with the tiredness. The cat and Kiki looked at Ruby with a puzzled expression as they had never heard of such a thing but they were both intrigued. Ruby’s eyes lit up with excitement realising she could be the first to introduce them to coffee. Sharing new food and drink with people always made her happy and this was a wonderful opportunity. “Would you like me to make you some to try?” asked Ruby, as her wings fluttered behind her in excitement. Kiki giggled at her foodie friend, realising she was about to overflow with excitement, and she agreed to Ruby’s proposal alongside the cat. “Shall we head inside here then?” Kiki said, pushing the door to the building open, knowing there was an unused kitchen inside that should have what Ruby needed to make them coffee - whatever it was.

As they entered, the cat gave a little sigh and apologised for her rudeness from earlier. “I am so sorry for my rudeness earlier; I am Kemuri. I’ve just been so tired lately and was finally able to find a lovey place to nap, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for my bad manners.” The fairies introduced themselves and reassured Kemuri they were not offended before Ruby made her way over to the kitchen area to brew them all some coffee. When she arrived at the kitchen, she placed the kettle on the stove before reaching into her pocket to find her purse.

Ruby didn’t carry a wand and she didn’t recite special spells, but she had mastered a different form of magic skill. Taught to her by an elf she had met when she first set off on her culinary adventure, this skill had completely changed the way she was able to travel. When she first met this elf, she had just started to wander the forest, but the large backpack she needed to carry with her tent and pots meant that she was unable to fly and had to walk due to all of the weight she was carrying. This had made her travels very slow and her little legs took a long time to cover a small distance. When she was roaming, trying to look for the first town outside the forest, an elf found her struggling and offered to try and help her. Over 6 months, Ruby learnt how to craft magical bags which could carry large loads without feeling the weight. This skill was very rarely obtained as you had to have predisposing talent and find a good teacher would could already use this skill, which were few and far between, but Ruby was very lucky. She had spent her full 6 months learning and crafting her very own magical purse which was small enough to fit in her pocket, but had the capacity to hold all of her camping and cooking supplies in an alternative magical dimension.

The house they had entered was not small but it had a cosy homeliness to it. A beautiful sitting room greeted you as you entered with a lovely open fireplace; some cozy armchairs sat near it, covered with fabric from when the owners had left the village. In fact, all of the furniture had be covered in the hopes it would stay in good condition until maybe one day a new owner would arrive.. After years of no use, the fabric was covered in a layer of dust as were the floors. Kemuri’s eyes followed Ruby as she made her way through the sitting room to the kitchen. Ruby seemed sure that coffee might help her tiredness and this made the little cat very excited. She loved to do things during the day and enjoyed meeting new friends and yet the tiredness had taken over her days so much that instead she always found herself napping in the hopes that she would feel better the next day. Kemuri glanced at Kiki who was carefully looking at a bookshelf in the corner of the sitting room, and decided to follow Ruby as she was so intrigued to learn how to make this thing called coffee.

Ruby heard the tapping of paws on the kitchen floor and turned around to see Kemuri joining her. The cat walked over to stand next to the fairy and glanced at the purse in the fairy’s hand.  Ruby reached inside and pulled out a metal canister. Kemuri was amazed seeing that the canister fit inside such a small purse but was more intrigued by what was inside the cannister.  “I’m afraid we must settle for instant coffee today.” explained Ruby to her new friend. Kemrui was confused. What was the difference between coffee and instant coffee? Ruby filled the kettle with water and turned the stove on before turning round and seeing an inquisitive expression of the grey cat’s face. Understanding Kemuri was interested, Ruby went into more detail, explaining how some places will make coffee with special coffee machines but as she did not have one of these, they would have to use the instant coffee instead which she found a lot easier to use when she was camping.

As the kettle boiled, Kiki made her way into the kitchen, removed the fabric from the dining area and sat down at the wooden table, waiting for her coffee to arrive. After watching Ruby pour the water into the cups with the coffee in, Kemuri took a cup and made her way to sit with Kiki. The aroma of coffee filled the room and made everyone eager to take a sip. Kiki and Kemuri took a sip with Ruby watching them in anticipation, excited to find out if they liked it. Noises of satisfaction filled the room, and Ruby was delighted that they all liked the taste of coffee. Kiki quickly finished her cup, and made her way over to see if there was more water in the kettle. “Did you want some more?” called Ruby, looking over at her fairy friend. “Oh no! It was lovely but I just wondered if I could take some to the dragons in the Library?’ replied Kiki, not knowing how to make the coffee. In a few moments, five more cups of coffee were placed on a tray and taken out of the house by Kiki as she made her way back to the library.  Ruby sat back down at the table and began an animated conversation with Kemuri about all the different types and flavours of coffee. Once more, the room was filled with the aroma of coffee and the sound of excited chatter.

After the door closed behind her, Kiki flapped her wings to get off of the ground and flew back over to the Great Tree Library. She had sometimes had the time to brew herself some tea but often only had water to drink so this new option made her very excited and she couldn’t wait to share it with her dragon friends. She was a very steady flier but she still found that the cups clinked together during her journey, but never enough for any of the coffee to spill. Kiki was a little disappointed she couldn’t have brought bigger cups for the dragons as they were larger than her but she knew this was as much as she could safely carry on her own.                 

Arriving at the library entrance she knew she couldn’t knock as her hands were completely full so she called out to Lienna as she knew Lienna was going to be downstairs organising everyone and the paperwork by the front desk. The pink dragon opened the door and was very intrigued by what Kiki had brought them all. The smell of coffee wafted around the building and soon all five dragons were together looking at what Kiki had on her tray. Kiki passed around cups of coffee to them all, explaining what it was and what had happened since she was gone. Everyone was very excited to try the coffee and were looking forward to hopefully meeting Kemuri the cat soon. Kiki waved to them all to say goodbye for now, leaving them to enjoy their drinks, but eager to get back to the house to rejoin Ruby and Kemuri as she had things to discuss with them both.